Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Monday August 08, 2011 @09:50AM
from the smaller-is-better dept.

MojoKid writes "Earlier this year, Intel unveiled its plan to redefine the concept of a PC around an ultra thin-and-light chassis reminiscent of the Macbook Air and with a standard CPU TDP of just 15W. Intel has unveiled the reference specs for ultra-notebook products they're calling 'Ultrabooks.' The cheaper ultra-notebook model will be 21mm thick with a BOM (bill of materials) between $475-650. A second, thinner model (18mm thick) will have a BOM between $493-710. Unlike netbooks, Ultrabooks will target the full range of consumer notebooks with screen sizes ranging from 11-17 inches. Reports are surfacing that the new systems will eschew the use of module-based components in favor of directly soldering certain components to the motherboard. Other findings indicated that Intel and its partners have researched alternatives to an aluminum-based chassis with materials like fiberglass expected to dominate the segment."

For the price an Apple computer costs it SHOULD be good quality. Sadly just because something looks good quality doesn't mean it is. It's not hard to find a litany of faults which have affected MacBook computers over the years. Expanding batteries, cracked casings, yellowing casing, overheating CPUs, warping, MagSafe shorting and fires etc. It's not surprising in some respect because Apple do push the limits of industrial design. But what looks nice does not always equate into good build quality or reliability either.

You can Google up "hp laptop crack..." or "dell screen..." and watch the autocomplete and you'll find the same things. Computers all fail in the same ways, big surprise. The question is how often.

If your failure rate is 15% and you sell ten million computers a year, you'll have 1,500,000 angry users on the Internet complaining. (Also, Apple gives all its computers the same name. So "macbook cracking" generates a lot more hits than "hp1337asdfqwerrtyuiop cracking")